Open letter to Railaway GM: Raw deal for ordinary people

On the 8th of September 2022, I visited the Colombo Fort Railway station hoping to book two seats to Ella (Colombo Fort – Ella – Colombo Fort).I spoke to the officer at the Inquiries counter and presented my requirements. Immediate response was there were no vacant seats for those dates. I wanted to change the dates and I received the following response;

1.  Reservations can be done on a particular day, ONLY for a date, exactly 14 days in advance. Example: On the 8th September 2022, I can reserve seats ONLY for the 22nd September, 2022. Reservations start at 10:00 am, and on that day at 10:25 am all were full.

2. If I want to book for the 23rd September, 2022 – I need to visit the Railway Station again the following day… and if full, keep visiting the station daily, until seats are available, if ever.

I tried the Sri Lanka Railways website, to try and book a seat online – same! No seats available and limited time frame to select dates.

Next, I tried Mobitel Ticketing service, by dialling 365 – Same result + I was charged Rs. 65/- for the call.

One year ago, I did the same trip by reserving my seat one month in advance – and I found the Observation Coach almost 50% empty!

1.  It seems that the Sri Lanka Railways reserve and block seats for their employees, whether they travel or not.

2.  If the passenger has a contact with a Railway employee, seats can be obtained without any difficulty, is the popular belief – at an enhanced price?

Why is a State-owned enterprise that has been running at a loss for decades, discourage and penalise passengers who requests their services?

Are these trains running at full capacity, every day, on all routes? (You can try ANY destination on the web and it says “No seats are available for the selected date, please select another date and search” – one can try ANY DATE and ANY DESTINATION and receive this message).Please Mr General Manager, Sri Lanka Railways, do educate us, the normal Sri Lankan citizen how we can travel on a train.

Ravindra Perera